Hope Is Not a Plan: The War in Iraq from Inside the Green Zone

by Mowle, Thomas S.

• ISBN13: 9780275994457
• ISBN10: 0275994457
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-03-30
• Publisher: Greenwood Pub Group

Summary

Hope Is Not a Plan takes the reader inside the war in Iraq courtesy of participant-observers brought there to diagnose the insurgency and develop a get-well plan. Focusing on the critical months of late 2004 and early 2005, it looks at a slice of the war not previously examined. This is not the Beltway story, nor the grunt and jarhead story. Rather, the book looks at the process of taking political and military goals and turning them into action. In telling that story, Hope Is Not a Plan helps explain how Iraq got to where it is today. The book compares the reality of what happen in the Green Zone during this period with what history, experience, and doctrine suggest should have happened. Finally, it reflects on what can be learned from the experience.

Table of Contents

Introduction : the Green Zone in 2004-05	p. 1
Prelude : strategy, optimism, and hard choices	p. 14
Campaign planning : the ground truth	p. 32
We didn't know what we were getting into	p. 57
Creating the Iraqi security forces	p. 70
The primacy of politics : the first election	p. 86
Strike two : bureaucracy does its thing reprised	p. 107
Conclusion : hoping for a plan	p. 133
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.